


Convincing Backstory

by violue



Series: The Spirit of Lawrence High Verse [3]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, brief mention of past attempted non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 18:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4797035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violue/pseuds/violue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one really bats an eye at Dean’s explanation for how he met Castiel. No one except his nosy sixteen year old brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Convincing Backstory

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't going to make a damn bit of sense if you haven't read the rest of the series. 
> 
> Major thanks to Mara and [Dani](http://warkitt3nz.tumblr.com/) for giving this a read through. <3

So, this is the official story: Last year, months before Dean’s coma, months before the Shurley family moved to Lawrence, Dean got into World of Warcraft. He met Castiel in the game, and they became friends, even traded names and pictures. Then Dean’s coma happened, and when he woke up he’d forgotten all about Castiel. At least that part is true.

Meanwhile, Castiel went to school, met Sam, and discovered Sam’s brother was the guy he’d met online and fallen out of touch with. A guy who was at the time in a coma, which is why Castiel went to visit Dean in the hospital. Castiel, afraid that his romantic feelings were one-sided, never revealed that he knew Dean—even after learning Dean was awake and recovering.

Then Dean saw Castiel’s picture on Sam’s phone, and miraculously recovered his memories of him. Dean went rushing to find him, excited to both remember his friend, _and_ know they now lived in the same city. Dean’s reluctance to share where they met stemmed from embarrassment over playing World of Warcraft, but he realized he was being silly about it, and is now willing to admit how he met his new boyfriend.

It’s a pretty convincing story in Dean’s opinion, and aside from some people being shocked about Dean’s bisexuality, no one really bats an eye at his tale.

No one except Dean’s nosy sixteen year old brother.

“So,” Sam says, setting down a half-eaten burrito, “how are things going with Castiel?”

Dean grins. Things with Castiel are awesome. This is the first time Dean’s been in a relationship that felt serious in that “I could see marrying you someday when we have full time jobs and don’t live with our parents” kind of way. Castiel has expressed similar feelings, though Dean has had some worry about being Castiel’s only real dating experience. He’d brought this concern to Castiel, wondering if he ought to date other people before he decided if he was serious about Dean.

Castiel had taken a day to consider it, and when he got back to Dean on the subject, he’d said, “I understand that for some people, dating a wide variety of partners before settling down is important, but it’s not something I’m concerned about. We could drift apart one day, or be in love forever. I’d rather operate under the belief that it will be the latter then spend our entire relationship assuming it will be the former. When my parents met at that Star Trek convention they were both just sixteen, and they’ve been together since in an… odd… but happy relationship. My bottom line is that if you feel it’s too soon for us to consider a future together, that’s fine, but I don’t intend to date other men when I’m already in love and happy with _you_.”

And that had been that.

“Things are good,” Dean says. “He got into some schools, graduation’s almost here, but… he’s taking a year off.”

“What for? One of those backpack across Europe things?”

Dean snorts. “Right. Nah, he got a job at the Gas ‘n Sip. He um… he wants to wait on going to school until I can come with him.”

“You’re _leaving_?!”

“In like fourteen months, _maybe_ I’m leaving. Cool your jets, he might end up at KU for all I know.”

Sam sighs. “Okay, jets are cooled.”

“Anyway, so he wants to save up some cash, and get off-campus housing with me when he goes to college.”

“Jeez, isn’t he just barely eighteen?”

Dean shrugs. “Cas is a guy that knows what he wants.” Not exactly true. Dean’s seen Castiel uncertain about a lot of things, just not about the two of them.

“Is this what _you_ want?”

Dean relaxes into one of the many hard plastic chairs the restaurant has to offer. “I want a life with Cas. Even if it means I gotta duck out of Lawrence while he gets a degree.”

“You could go to school too, you know. Anywhere there’s a university, there’s probably a community college, and loans to be given.”

“Ugh, you sound like Cas. I’ll tell you the same thing I told him.”

“Which is?”

“We’ll see.”

Sam rolls his eyes and takes a long pull from his soda. “You’ll visit me, right?”

“Of course, Sammy. Even if I have to take a plane ride to do it.”

Sam looks shocked. “Wow, that’s like the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“I sure hope not.”

“We’ll still talk all the time, right?”

“Sam, this is happening over a _year_ from now, and I don’t even know if we’re leaving Lawrence.”

“So?”

Dean sighs. “Okay, yes. We’re gonna talk all the time. We can Skype!”

“Maybe we could play World of Warcraft together! Lenore loves that game.”

Uh oh. Play it cool, Dean.

“Uh, maybe… I mean I haven’t played since I woke up.” Which is true. Dean hasn’t played since he woke up, because he’s _never_ played. He barely knows anything about the damn game, but his old lab partner, Ed, was really into it.

“So were you and Castiel playing Alliance, or Horde?”

Ed’s favorite shirt was one that said “For the Alliance!” in fancy lettering under a blue and gold crest in the shape of a lion. Dean’s going to go with that.

“We played Alliance.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Sam says, nodding. Dean can’t tell if he’s just curious or if he’s up to something. “Lenore plays for the Horde, so I guess I’m dating your sworn enemy. What race were you? Tauren? Blood Elf? Orc?”

Dean doesn’t know what the fuck those first two things are, but he’s pretty sure orcs are ogres, so he’s going to go with the familiar. “I was uh… an orc.”

Sam slaps a palm down on the table, and Dean jumps back in surprise. “I _KNEW_ IT! Orcs are _Horde,_ Dean! You’ve never played World of Warcraft in your life!”

Well, Dean walked right fucking into that one. “What, so you _tricked_ me? Who _does_ that?”

“Who lies to their little brother? Why won’t you tell anyone how you really met Cas?!”

Dean glares. He wants to storm out, but Sam’s his damn ride. “Because no one would believe us anyway.”

“ _I'd_ believe you!”

“You didn’t believe my World of Warcraft story!”

“Because I knew you were lying!”

Dean sighs. Part of him likes that he and Castiel have this thing only the two of them know about, but keeping shit from Sam sucks, especially since Sam _knows_ Dean is hiding something.

“Do you believe in ghosts, Sammy?”

“Come _on,_ Dean, just tell me!”

“I _am_ telling you. Answer the question. Do you believe in ghosts?”

“No, not really.”

“What if I told you that the entire time I was in my coma, I was a ghost, stuck haunting the high school in spirit form, couldn’t leave the school property, and Cas was the only person there that could see me?”

“I’d say that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Would _you_ believe that?”

“No, and that’s why we don’t tell people. They’ll just think I’m a liar, or that I have… I don’t know, _coma brain_.”

Sam’s face grows concerned. “Have you talked to Dr. Abner or Dr. Sands about this?”

Dean groans. “No.” He stands, pulling Sam out of the restaurant and to the Impala, ignoring Sam’s protests about his unfinished burrito. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and calls Castiel, putting the phone on speaker mode and setting it on the dashboard.

“Hello, Dean,” Castiel says.

“Hey, Cas. You’re on speaker with Sammy and me.”

“Hello, Sam.”

“Okay, Cas. Tell Sam how we met.”

Castiel pauses. “We… met playing World of Warcraft.”

Sam sighs.

“No, Cas,” Dean says, “tell him how you _actually_ met me. I’m serious. Tell him the truth.”

Dean can almost hear Castiel tilting his head when he replies. “Are you… _sure_?”

“Yes, just tell him.”

“Alright,” Castiel says, sounding uneasy. “Dean and I met at the high school. The first time I saw him, he was watching me get beat up by Alastair… then I saw him again in my Latin class. He vanished before my eyes. While he was in his coma, he was a specter of some sort. No one could see or hear him but me, and often I couldn’t see or hear him either. However once I _could_ see him, we talked. We formed a friendship, and… something more. After months of friendship and… a sort of romance, Dean rescued me from being sexually assaulted in the library, destroyed the room with a stunning display of ghost rage, convinced my attacker to turn himself in to the authorities, lost control of his spirit form, woke up from his coma, then completely forgot I existed for four months.”

Wow. It really, _really_ sounds ridiculous when it’s summarized like that.

Sam has this look on his face like he just ate a piece of bad fish. “You can’t expect me to believe that. This is a prank or something, you guys planned this.”

“Why in the world would we do that?” Castiel says, sounding confused.

“Dean made you? I don’t know!”

“First of all, Dean doesn’t make me do anything, and second, do I strike you as someone who makes up stories about sexual assault for a prank?”

“Well, no…”

“And are your brother’s pranks _ever_ clever enough to involve a complicated and ridiculous backstory?”

“ _Hey,_ ” Dean barks, “I’m sitting right here.”

“You’re the one that wanted to tell him,” Castiel says, voice frosty.

“Well, the World of Warcraft thing had a backstory,” Sam reasons.

“That story isn’t a prank. It’s a cover story because the truth is _ridiculous._ ” Castiel sighs. “I apologize, I need to go. I’m at dinner with my mother and she’s waiting for me to come back. I will be home soon if you need to discuss this further.” Castiel ends the call.

“Um… bye?” Sam says, staring at Dean incredulously.

Dean sighs, shaking his head. “Cas isn’t really a phone person. We’re working on it.”

“Dean, this story is—”

“I had a connection to my body while I was a spirit.”

“Dean—”

“I could hear you come talk to me. You came to see me every day before school started up, and once classes got going you still made sure to come by at least twice a week. You talked about Mom and Dad, your friends at school… you told me about Lenore.”

“How did you—”

“And even the stuff you didn’t tell me about… I learned a lot of that too, because I was _there,_ Sam. You just couldn’t see me. I know that you asked Lenore out at lunch on a Wednesday, and when she said yes you were so excited. Then you told her you had to get to class, but really you ran to the bathroom and threw up your entire meal.”

“N-no one… no one knows about that…”

“I know that every morning you would go to your locker, open it, and look at the picture of us after we ate all that damn pie, and sometimes you’d put your hand on the picture and sigh.”

“Dean…”

“I know that you tried your first cigarette behind the school with Andy and Ava and hated it. I know one time during History you got bored and spent the whole period writing ‘Sam and Lenore Winchester’ in your notebook in different lettering instead of taking notes. I know you cried in the bathroom at least twelve times during the first month of school. I know you sometimes went into the gym and just stood there staring at the new bleachers. I know you once lied about going to visit me to get out of hanging out with Ruby. I know all of this because I really was there, Sammy. Trapped haunting the school for seven months, and no one but Cas knew I was there.”

“You… you were really there…” Sam’s voice sounds so small and broken, and his eyes are watering, and _fuck_ , Dean shouldn’t have told him this.

“Yeah, Sammy.”

“And you were all alone?”

“Before Cas started to see me? Yeah.”

“I’m so, so, sorry, Dean,” Sam sobs, reaching across the seat and dragging Dean into a hug. Kid’s getting strong. He cries all over Dean for a few minutes and then pulls back, wiping his eyes with his shirt. “I have… so many questions.”

“I bet.”

“So, when you saw Castiel’s picture and totally freaked out, you really were remembering him?”

“Yeah, but not _just_ him… I remembered seven months worth of shit all at once. There was a lot of… adjusting I had to do after that. It suddenly felt like my experience had _just_ happened. Other than Cas, there was no one I could talk to about it. I couldn’t tell anyone why it was suddenly weird for me to be around people, or why I was kind of depressed. I’m a lot better now. But uh… I mean it’s only been a month. Some days I wake up and I’m confused because I’m not at the school, and sometimes I feel like I’m in the wrong clothes… because I kinda only had one outfit that whole time.”

“Wow, Dean… _wow._ What did you _do_ all day?”

“I watched you. I watched Cas. I brushed up on high school subjects. I understand that whole Boston Tea Party thing _way_ better than I did when I graduated… uh… anyway Cas couldn’t see me until September, but after he could see me… we’d talk. He’d download Dr. Sexy episodes onto his laptop and we’d watch them late at night after the school was empty. He stalked the family on Thanksgiving because he wanted to take pictures of you guys for me to look at.”

“Why didn’t he _tell_ me?!”

“Tell you that your brother was trapped on school property in spirit form? Come _on_ , Sam. Even if you _did_ believe him… I wouldn’t want you knowing that. Knowing your brother was just out of reach… think about how unhappy that would have made you.”

“I was unhappy anyway.”

“I’m sorry, Sammy, but… I didn’t know if I was going to be there forever. I didn’t want you always thinking about me being stuck there… for the rest of your life.”

Sam sighs. “Cas knew.”

“Because he could see me!”

“Is it true what he said? You saved him?”

Dean frowns. “Yeah. That was the night I woke up. I think it’s _why_ I woke up.”

“And _you_ trashed the library?”

“Yeah. Alastair was going to… to hurt Cas… I had this _surge,_ Sammy. There was all this raw _power_. Papers were flying everywhere, lights were shattering, the walls cracked, and I was _solid…_ corporeal… I beat the damn hell out of Alastair… put the fear of God in him. Well, the fear or _something_ in him. I told him if he didn’t go confess all his dirty sins to the cops, I’d kill him.”

“Holy _shit,_ Dean!”

“I wasn’t _actually_ going to kill him.”

“Wow, this is so incredible, Dean. I mean it’s _horrifying_ , but it’s incredible.”

Dean slumps in his seat, feeling deflated suddenly. “Can we uh… I wanna see Cas.”

Sam looks surprised by the change of conversation, but nods. “Yeah, Dean, of course.”

Dean didn’t realize how much retelling this story would take out of him, but he feels… raw. Sam drives him to Castiel’s house, the car filled with a contemplative silence the whole ride. Dean is relieved to see Castiel’s parents talking on the porch when they arrive. He must be home already.

Dean unbuckles his seatbelt, pulling Sam into a quick hug. “I’m sorry for dumping all this on you and then fleeing to Cas’... I’m just feeling…”

“It’s okay, Dean. _I’m_ okay. It’s good to know the truth, and… I won’t tell anyone. Not that I’d bother. Not even Lenore would believe _this._ ”

“I promise I’ll let you grill me more about this later.”

“Good, because I’m going home to make a list of questions.”

Dean laughs; not because he thinks Sam is joking, but because he _knows_ Sam is serious.

Sam drives away as Dean approaches the house, and Castiel’s mom whirls around to face him, grinning ear to ear.

“Dean! What good timing! Castiel and I just got home a few minutes ago.”

“Hey, Mrs. Shurley, Mr. Shurley.”

“Oh please, call us Becky and Chuck!” Becky insists.

“Um, okay, I can do that.”

Chuck pats Dean on the shoulder awkwardly. “Go on in, Dean.”

Dean nods, smiling. He opens the front door and walks in, spotting Castiel and Gabriel on the couch.

“Dean the Deflowerer!” Gabriel cheers, waving.

“Please, _please_ don’t call him that,” Castiel groans.

“It’s not my fault Anna can’t keep a secret.”

Castiel stands, shaking his head. “Let’s go talk in my room, Dean.”

“Uh huh. _Talk_. Sure, baby bro. You should get Mom, she’d probably love to observe and take notes!”

Castiel sighs, and Dean can hear eighteen years of sibling irritation in the sound. He can’t help but smile at it as they head up the stairs.

“You look very sad,” Castiel says, once they’re in his room.

“Yeah, it’s just… telling Sam, retelling some of that stuff… I was so lonely that summer. It hurts to think about.”

They sit on Castiel’s bed leaning against the wall, fingers laced together between them, shoes kicked off.

“What made you decide to tell him?” Castiel asks.

“He saw _right_ through the World of Warcraft thing. Gave me a trick question about whether orcs were Alliance or Horde.”

“They’re Horde.”

“Ugh.”

“That information was in the e-mail I sent you this week. The one with basics about the game. You should have read it.”

“I skimmed it!”

“No you didn’t.”

Dean grins. “No, I didn’t.”

“I spent an _hour_ on the e-mail,” Castiel says sadly.

“I promise I’ll read it when I get home.”

“You’d better, perhaps next your father will ask you what class and talent build you’re playing.”

“My dad can barely understand Mario Kart, he’s not going to ask me about World of Warcraft.”

“Perhaps your mother will grill you on your favorite crafting profession.”

“Do you play this game or something?!”

“No, I did research.”

“God, you’re such a fucking geek. Let me fuck you.”

Castiel pats Dean’s leg. “Maybe after you read my e-mail.”

Dean pulls his phone out of his pocket, opening his e-mail app right away. Castiel snorts, snatching the phone out of Dean’s hand.

“I didn’t mean _now._ Tell me about Sam. How did he take this new information?”

Dean stares at his phone longingly. “Uh. He took it okay? Kind of. He cried. He has questions… most of which I probably won’t be able to answer. I mean I lived it… but I don’t understand it. Can I have my phone back?”

“No. I’m glad you’ll have another trusted person to talk to about this. You went through a very traumatic experience, you deserve a support system.”

“Traumatic is a strong word.”

Castiel shakes his head. “I don’t think it is.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Remember all your emotional growth from the past year, Dean. Be _honest._ ”

Dean groans. “Okay, I am _maybe_ mildly traumatized. But I’m doing a lot better, I promise.”

“And I believe you. I just feel it’s important not to downplay what you went through. You’re at an age where it’s important to establish good habits in dealing with your emotional health.”

“God, you’re like an old person when you talk all fancy.”

“I thought I was like a robot. Beep boop and all that, remember?”

Dean smiles, squeezing Castiel’s hand. He’s so glad he asked Sam to bring him here. “You’re like a lot of things, Cas. And I love all of them.”

Castiel blushes, looking down at their hands. “Dean…”

“ _Now_ can I fuck you?”

“If you can tell me what World of Warcraft class uses fire, ice, and arcane magic.”

“What? You wouldn’t let me check my phone! I have no idea!”

“Wow, you must really be kicking yourself for not reading the e-mail when I sent it to you _six days ago_ then.”

“Caaaaasssss! Give me my phone! I’ll read it right now!”

“Now why would I want to reward your uncouth behavior?”

“ _Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassss_!”

Castiel grins at Dean and finally gives him back his phone.

 

 

 

**END**

**Author's Note:**

> I have another timestamp planned! I'm only two pages into it, though, so it'll be a handful of days at least before it's done.


End file.
